Tuesday 13 April 2021

More people cashing in on the current pandemic
My rant in February about tradespeople hit a nerve among my readers/ reader (delete as applicable)
I now have another experience of tradespeople to share with you. We are very fortunate to have rather a large patio in our garden.
It was laid more than 20 years ago when we moved into the house and had served us well on those balmy Spring, Summer and Autumn days.
Unfortunately the rather inclement weather we face during the rest of each year has taken its toll on the jointing.
To call it jointing is something of a misnomer at present as we have more weeds and earth separating the paving slabs than concrete.
So SWMBO and I decided it was time to call in the experts and have the lot redone.
Following my live local, use local mantra I contacted three patio “specialists” who advertise in our local parish magazine.
Number one said he was far too busy at present and would get back to me if he had some spare time BEFORE THE END OF SUMMER. No, we’re alright thanks, I told him – we want to use the area when we can finally see family and friends again in our garden this month and certainly before the Autumn!
But good on him for being open and not wasting anyone’s time – his or ours.
Number two patio man came round to have a look at the project and said he’d email me a quote.
On chasing him a couple of weeks later (mid-March) he said he would definitely email me. As I write this at the end of March I have still to hear from him. And yes, I have checked my spam folder.
Now we move onto patio man number three. He too came round to look at what was needed and said he’d email me a quote. After a gentle reminder he did.
When SWMBO saw his quote she almost fell off her rocking chair. Not one to usually demonstrate great emotion about quotes (apparently that’s man’s work) she was horrified at the bottom line.
Suffice to say it was almost double what we paid to have the whole thing done. Yes, I know that was 20 years ago and we have had a bit of inflation since but the cost then included all the groundwork, cementing, paving slabs, jointing etc. etc.
I can only surmise that he has so much work on, like patio man numbers one and two, that he doesn’t really want this job. Unless, of course, we are willing to pay way over the odds.
So we decided to do the job ourselves. In two days we have finished just over half the patio – scraping out all the old joints and applying an all-weather self-setting jointing compound.
By the time we finish we will have used just over £100 worth of the compound, following the manufacturer’s usage guide.
Patio man number three said it would take £350 worth of the same product to do our patio. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
Covid-19 has undoubtedly hit many businesses but not, it seems, people who do patios.